Music and sustainability education – a contradiction?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.6452Keywords:
aesthetic experience, music, listening, sustainability, science educationAbstract
Abstract
Sustainability education is an interdisciplinary endeavor and should thus in-clude music as well. In this paper, I explore the under-researched field of music and sustainability education. My central thesis is that music and attentive listening have a potential of strengthening students’ aesthetic experience and world bonding, two essential elements of their sustainability engagement. The paper consists of a review of research on art, music and sustainability education, an elaboration on eco-acoustics and efforts to apply music to the sonic world, and a discussion of the training of music-sustainability competencies. In the existing research on music and sustainability education, I find a latent tension between those who regard music as a means for teaching for sustainability, and those who view music as genuine knowledge that there is need of in sustainability education. Perhaps the greatest fallacy is to reduce music to a mere tool to reach sustainability goals. Then music’s aesthetic and creative potential is lost. We need fresh and unconventional ideas to cope with the present situation in a desirable future direction. Listening as world engagement, I discuss in relation to the skills of doing music: listening to music, performing music, and making music. I argue that there is much to learn from soundscape artists when it comes to refining students’ ears for the environment’s sonic expressions. Such a refinement presupposes, however, an interdisciplinary commitment in school of practicing the skill of listening, also in other subjects than music.
Keywords: music, aesthetic experience, attentive listening, sustainability education
Musikk og utdanning for bærekraft – en motsetning?
Sammendrag
Utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling forutsetter tverrfaglig samarbeid og skal derfor også inkludere musikkfaget. I artikkelen diskuterer jeg musikkens potensielle rolle i utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling, et til nå lite utforsket tema. Min antakelse er at musikk og oppmerksom lytting har potensial til å styrke elevers estetiske erfaring og forbundethet med verden, to forutsetninger for deres engasjement for en bærekraftig fremtid. Artikkelen består av en gjennomgang av eksisterende forskning på kunst, musikk og bærekraft i undervisningen, en drøfting av øko-akustikk, musikk og oppmerksom lytting, og en diskusjon av oppøving av kompetanser som er felles for musikk og utdanning for bærekraft. Min utforsking av eksisterende forskning viser en latent spenning mellom dem som anser musikk som et middel i undervisning for bærekraft og dem som oppfatter musikk som genuin kunnskap for en bærekraftig utvikling. Dersom musikk gjøres til et rent redskapsfag for å nå bærekraftmålene, går dens estetisk-kreative egenart tapt. For å bevege oss mot en bærekraftig fremtid trengs ukonvensjonelle ideer og djerv handling. Lytting som estetisk erfaring diskuterer jeg i forhold til musikkfagets tre kompetanser: å lytte til musikk, å fremføre musikk og å lage musikk. Jeg argumenterer for at det er mye å lære av soundscape-kunstnere når det gjelder å oppøve elevers evne til å bli var omgivelsenes lydlige uttrykk. Oppøving av en oppmerksom lytting forutsetter en tverrfaglig vilje i skolen til å øve lytteevnen, også i andre fag enn musikkfaget.
Nøkkelord: musikk, estetisk erfaring, oppmerksom lytting, utdanning for bærekraftig utvikling
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